Hurlyburly (1998)

That was an excellent one.

Did you people see the same film I saw?

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Hurlyburly is filled with characters whose vices are so thick that we're made to think we care for them despite everything. But the thing is, most of these guys, with some exceptions in scenes, they're without redeeming characteristics. The film might be a fine anti-Cocaine ad, to be sure, as there's barely a scene where someone isn't snuffing up the nose (it was filmed in 1998 but written back in the early 80's, which makes just a little more sense), but as far as giving any thing close to a (bleep) about these guys is tough. And I know that's not the main goal, I know it's not. We're meant to wallow in with these men who have all of this time to luxuriate in bulls*** and do their drugs and screw around with girls like Anna Paquin (who, I did like, is never identified by age making it all the more questionable), and how they are at best misogynistic and at worst... well, SVU handles guys like these sometimes pretty well.Perhaps the intention in David Rabe's script, and certainly I could see it being that for the stage where it was originally done, is that they're in a nihilistic circle of their own making, filled with drug- laden anecdotes and partying and screwing around and all that stuff that Hollywood people "do" (and hey, it's the world by Mulholland drive so it's that kind of terrain), and they're just trying to get by each their own way. But it's how characters speak that becomes uneven. Sean Penn's Eddie is a paranoid mess who is fine for a few minutes when we see him clean and sober, and then right back to being a dick as soon as he's back on the powder. Kevin Spacey's Nicky seems more cool-headed and rational, but is so vindictive that, perhaps comparatively, comes off best but among the real world still fails at humanity (maybe by default). And Phil, that's a whole other ball of wax, a man so neurotic he makes Woody Allen characters look like the Beaver Cleavers.The women are a little more of a mixed lot, with Darlene (Robin Wright Penn, not too oddly enough Sean's wife) the most sane and clear-headed and rational. It's mostly in Hurlyburly a question of being so thick into the muck of decay that it just becomes self-indulgent. And the way characters speak tends to go on and on, mostly with a guy like Phil who just has too many words up his sleeve for someone who should have more of an instinctual, guttural way of talking like a primitive beast. It's not the talk of movie people but theater, and that's one of the big slip ups here, and not an uncommon one with adaptations which is to not have the right tone for the screen. Sometimes the dialog can be agreeable, maybe close to funny (the scene where Phil throws Meg Ryan's character out of the car, and what leads up to it, is amazing). But too much of it is over-loaded with language.The acting should be what saves it. Sometimes it does. I mean, look who is over here after all, Oscar winners and other notables. But when Garry Shandling ends up really taking the acting prize (and most notably with a scene where he talks with Penn through a glass table) you know there's something not quite right. Spacey is fine but he could do this part in his sleep; more curious would've been to see Christopher Walken, who originated the role on Broadway, in the role as it would've been so unusual for him. Penn has his moments where he connects emotionally, but the rest of it is in such predictable ham-bone mode that it becomes laughable; most excruciating is a scene where he keeps begging Meg Ryan for a BJ, and it gets to a point where Tommy Wiseau would be needed as a dramatic stand-in. You're tearing me apart, movie!Palminteri seems the most mis-cast though; I never really believed much of what he was saying, and only once or twice did it look like he was even slightly well-off in the role. He keeps on making these things with how he speaks (though it might be akin to how Phil talks) and it's just odd and embarrassing, considering that the man can act in the right role, usually in urban street-wise stuff. A neurotic is not for him, and he has to play one to such a psychotic extent and looks a little dumbfounded in some scenes why he's even there! And it's not all on the director's fault, at least, maybe, I wouldn't think so entirely. He does keep some scenes moving along to try and bring some cinematic quality to it. But when it stalls into its theater-setting, it shows. I don't want to be too hard on the movie, and yet it's tough when there's such high stakes: a dynamite cast, a drug-fueled set-up that allows for so much potential drama. The results should be fantastic. And instead it's the kind of hot-headed pretentious bally-hoo that makes people hate Hollywood people: they're heads are so far up their asses they don't know where the sun shines anymore.

Or "Verbal Gymnastics Among The Bored And Decadent". I have rarely, or perhaps even never, seen a movie with such extreme verbal acrobatics and with such an incredible emphasis on complex semantic games and duels; almost makes Stillman's movies sound like Bud Spencer's films, by comparison. Whoever wrote this thing evidently put a lot of effort into the sometimes mind-boggling dialog. There isn't much in the way of a plot, but the kind of talking, arguing, and philosophizing that goes on here is rather unusual. And the good part is that it's very well-written. Occasionally the sentences or arguments get so bogged down into semantic mud that it becomes necessary to use the rewind button, because it's difficult to concentrate that hard for two entire hours. I think that Wright spoke for both the viewers and the cast members when she at one point hollered "I can't stand this semantic insanity any more!".Practically everyone engages in the verbal entanglements, but it is Penn's character who usually outdoes everyone in this respect, and it is usually him who initiates them, right after snorting the n-th line of cocaine, or after having taken a couple of deep inhalings of hash - and those things he does throughout the whole movie (and this goes to a lesser extent for Spacey and Schandling, too). The "semantic insanity" sometimes goes so far that the characters replace ends of sentences with "blablablabla" - quite literally. The dialog is sometimes fascinating, often funny or amusing, and at times so insanely intricate that the characters themselves have trouble following what the other person exactly meant to say.This last thing, of course, leads to many amusing moments. The humorous moments themselves stem primarily from Penn's drug-induced, hallucinatory ramblings and Spacey's wonderful sarcasm and wit. In fact, the very beginning of the movie sets the tone for the way those two will interact throughout most of the picture (their relationship being important but also just one of a half-dozen): Penn is falling deeper and deeper into thickets of "semantic insanity" - bitching about Spacey having had a fling with Wright - while Spacey listens to him, and responds to Penn's verbal overkill by making wry remarks. In the two hours of the movie Penn is almost always whacked-out on drugs, and the more drugged he is, the more he searches for answers to the "meaning of life" (towards the end of the movie), the more he moans, bitches, and whines, and the more he practices his bored-out-of-my-mind philosophizing about relationships and life. In moments when he is extremely out of it - like when alone with Meg Ryan, and just after Palmintierri's funeral - he goes on such an emotional rampage, and his voice assumes such a high, crackly pitch that he sounds exactly like Bill Murray in moments when he goes a little crazy. It's by far the best Penn I've seen so far; he has rarely been good, but in this movie he is rather good, I have to admit. Spacey, of course, is great as ever, and Palmintierri gets a short while to get used to. The cast is, generally speaking, quite a colourful and mixed bag.There are a number of funny or amusing moments, so I'll just mention a couple of those that I still remember... There is the scene when Penn mentions the aborigines, and says some nonsense about them having (had) their own problems, such as "tigers waiting in trees", and "dogs in the bushes" (or something like that). Very funny. Then there is a funny, longer scene in which Spacey tries to explain to Penn that there is no hidden message in Palmintierri's (rather moronic) suicide note, while Penn insists that they analyze the letter for hidden meanings and anagrams(!) in order to find the real truth about his pal's death. Especially funny is the brief scene when Spacey reads the letter aloud, mock-analyzing it word by word.

For many movie fans who truly love the art of film, a good screenplay is the jeweled movement on which marvelous films turn and pivot. They remain with you as memorable experiences, be they like Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, Gandhi, or The Maltese Falcon. The genre hardly matters; good screen play is an essential in even the action movie. Too bad so much mediocre screen writing abounds when good talent seems so obtainable.'Hurlyburly' was adapted from the play for the screen by the author. In a word, it is brilliant. The acting is superb in every character, and the casting was perfect. Once again, Sean Penn gives a performance that is indicative of his paramount position as one of the very best actors of his generation — a superlative star given any generation.I can just imagine that this film has made some pretty bad friends in some quarters — and in both genders. There is no hiding the fact that this sort of world exists to some extent anywhere a group of hedonistic, single males (or men who think that they are still single) gather to hang out, relax or party. But a viewer will be missing the point if she/he thinks that 's all there is — gratuitous, reckless living. Marshall McLuan's theory of amputation kept occurring to me after watching the film — the idea that with each additional machine in our culture we are being cut off from our humanity. This is a psychodrama that does not resort to the unspoken, latent trauma that lurks in the past to trouble our characters. Something in Eddie is more truncated than broken, and although he doesn't know what it is, he is intensely aware that it is causing him despair, loneliness and pain. The drugs maybe both cause and effect. Beyond the pain itself, he is completely unsure about what he thinks he is supposed to feel. Some considerable irony floats around this issue, and to the director's credit it is revealed with cunning grace.This film demonstrates that amidst all the lowest common denominating crud, American mainstream cinema is occasionally distributing intriguing works of art. This may not be the film to purposely chose on a sad evening of angst and regret, but if you were to catch it at such a moment, the performances might sweep you up, and the film that was a play could beguile you. I gave it an unequivocal 10 for the same reasons your movie guide gives 5's for the films that I would love to have in my tape and disk library.

**Some spoilers**I can't believe that this garbage still gets viewing seven years after the fact. This thing had a great cast, and absolutely the worst story, dialog, etc. Typical late 90s trendy artsy "if you don't get this, you're just a Philistine" garbage. A rating of one is actually too high. I wanted to put this at about a negative 2, but the folks at IMDb have to draw the line somewhere, I suppose. I saw this movie with a guy who worships David Lynch, and he HATED this movie. If that doesn't tell you something, nothing will. This piece of garbage would occupy 2 slots on my worst movie list, and I'm stupid for having paid money to see it.Advice: If anyone arrives at your doorstep with this turd, and says "Hey, I've got a great movie to watch" :1. Inform the person you have to spend the next two hours cleaning your toilet (more productive) or you've got a kidney stone to pass (more pleasurable). 2. Inform said person that if they were truly a friend, they would never have brought this movie in the first place. 3. Tell same friend to return the movie, demand his money back, and seek professional counseling the next day. If you need to watch the messed up, drug-laden lives of others, THEN YOU NEED HELP. 4. Promptly close the door on the former friend, and go back to what you were doing, content with the knowledge that anything...yes even passing a kidney stone...is more enjoyable than watching Hurly Burly.